by Katie Ouilette

WALLS, how wonderful it was to receive Ggaduation photos from our Bellingham, Washington, family as they attended great-grandson Landon’s graduation from Bellingham High School. There was Landon, dressed in his blue cap and gown, with his Aunt Donna, cousin Michelle and her children Kinley and Caden Wilhelm (I imagine Uncle Dean Ouilette or husband Jason Wilhelm were busy with their cameras). Oh, how proud we are of all. True, grandad Nick was in Maine and readying to return to Bellingham Yacht Sales and dad Danny was busy chauffeuring folks to Seattle airport, as his business had to come first.

Yes, WALLS and faithful readers, a column about ‘Mother knows best’ was written for this issue, but let’s make this a happy story. True, Landon’s mom did take him to the doctor he had, saying that she felt that the flu medication prescribed for him by the new doctor was not the cure. She was right! Yes, the former doctor wanted five-year old Landon at Seattle Children’s Hospital immediately. Off they went and Seattle Children’s was waiting for their arrival. Fortunately, at the hospital, a stem cell was taken and frozen before Landon was sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee, where it was determined that Landon had unusual Wilm’s Cancer. Yes, and the Wilm’s specialist doctor was at St. Jude’s. So became the long cure. In fact, Landon was not only treated for Wilm’s Cancer, but he was treated to school days when he was of school age, so he missed little of his schooling … but for 12 years!

When, Landon was ‘free of Wilm’s Cancer’ he was sent back to Seattle Children’s for a stem-cell implant! It was then that dad Danny and Landon lived together in insolation for three months at Seattle Children’s Hospital!

Well, now you know ‘who’ that young man to whom my book, Two Birds in a Box, is dedicated and ‘why’ the dedication reads “To my great-grandson, Landon, and all children who are recuperating at children’s hospitals, waiting for their day to fly.” Well, Landon had his 19th birthday in January and on June 10 got his diploma. He has had a trip to wellness that few his age have experienced, but all who have had their graduations have been preparing for these years to fly. Yes, just as Momma Birds taught her babies to fly into their futures, may Landon’s experiences be an inspiration to you and remember that Mama knows best. Graduation is your beginning. Be happy and an inspiration as you begin the beginning of your life and the future.

by Katie Ouilette

WALLS, can you tell? I’m trying to type on a different computer! Ayeh, faithful readers, gotta go to the fix-it shop PDQ! As a result, WALLS will be very short this week!

WALLS, apologetically wants the young man who was bagging groceries at Hannaford and asked how our Maine weather had improved and suited us lately? Well, you know about the year that Maine had no summer and suggested he read this week’s column. After all, you and I know about the old saying, “everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it”.

Yes, we are old and remember the saying, but I never knew why Maine folks talked about a Maine without a summer, until I found a 2016 Almanac that Bangor Savings Bank had distributed to folks. The very last page gave the reason why and when and where. Yes, WALLS has learned that 1816 and a volcanic eruption gets all the blame! No, the volcano didn’t erupt in these parts, but it happened to Mount Tambora, in Indonesia! Yes, faithful readers, that was the largest eruption in the last 1,800 years!

Yup…a big cloud for sure!

And, since Lew has guided me through using his laptop,WALLS will tell you more in Chapter 2.

by Katie Ouilette

WALLS, I looked out the lakeside window and saw the book he had written about Lakewood on the small table there. Then, I turned to the obituaries in the Morning Sentinel and, lo and behold, there was the photo and write-up of his life, which included his involvement with our own Maine Lakewood Theatre. Yes, it was one and the same John Oblak that had visited his family in Little Falls, New York. Wow! We really had walked in each-others moccasins, as Lew and I had just moved into our house in Little Falls. Needless to say, I called John’s family immediately, but he and his wife had just left after their visit.

Now, our faithful readers may want to ‘fast forward’ to today and learn that Lakewood was a mere drop in John Oblak’s theatrical life. Yes, he was technical director at Lakewood from 1965-1967, he pursued his theatrical education and, even in retirement, he continued to work with theatrical presentations as recently as 2016.

Yes, I have the book that he wrote entitled Bringing Broadway to Maine and the listings of presentations and performers bring wonderful memories every time I thumb through it. Oh, yes, I have a copy of the first play ever performed at Lakewood in 1901 entitled Private Secretary, thanks to an actor who told me he would find it so that we, who owned the theater would be able to produce it for the centennial year of 1975. Yes, and Grandma Zelia Valliere is listed among the performers as Celia Vallier. How many times she told me about her experience of acting at the Lakewood Theatre after getting excused from school and taking the trolley to Lakewood for rehearsals. Yes, she was a sailor-boy in the 1901 play, but grew up for another part in 1903. Oh, WALLS, the ‘we’ I spoke of was Joe Denis and I who owned all of Lakewood from ‘1971 through 1975’.

Yes, WALLS, those who have had Lakewood in their lives over the years will get surprised by the changes there, but a bit ago there was a notice that auditions are being planned for the 2017 season of the theater.

Well, WALLS, you’ve told folks a little bit about Lakewood on Lake Wesserunsett, but surely there will be more as summer gets in full bloom. You will surely tell more about Lakewood’s growth from an Abnaki Indian Reservation to what has become known as one of the oldest summer theaters in our USA. Surely, there are changes that, frankly, happened when Herbert Swett would visit his Bowdoin classmates in New York City and they would all sit at the Lakewood table at the hotel where they met and reminisced and, yes, planned for a dreamed-of theater season. With a trolley line that had just been introduced, of course, the theater would become an attraction for folks far and near.

by Katie Ouilette

Well, WALLS, as the old saying has taught us, “What a difference a day makes,” and so it is for our faithful readers today. Yes, you wrote and sent your message on March 17, but it didn’t arrive. Yes, I know that one of the subjects was Lew’s and my stopping at the Red Barn Restaurant when we were en route from going to Sabre Boat’s factory in Raymond. So, it is very appropriate that you repeat our experience at Red Barn Restaurant, as Lew, who is a veteran of a long time ago, still warranted his getting a discount, as he started to pay for our order.

He couldn’t believe that anyone cared about a person who served in World War II, but those folks at Red Barn surely did. Surely, you have read about the wonderful things the Red Barn’s owner, Laura, has done for folks, and now you, WALLS, are proof of her generosity and good deeds through the years. Oh, the reason we were at Sabre Boat was that we went there to approve a boat for shipping to Bellingham Yachts, which is owned by our sons Dean and Nick.

Now, for sure the days since last Friday have given you a new twist for your column, WALLS, but you can still tell our faithful readers about Governor Abner Coburn Day. Yes, The Town Line will not be available until after March 22, but at least our faithful readers will know that invitations were sent to all the historical societies in Somerset County and elsewhere, and the day, which was chaired by Rob Washburn, a member of the Skowhegan Heritage Society. His message dealt with the education of young folks, a subject that Abner Coburn held firmly to, since his formal education ended when he was 14 years of age, when his dad decided he should learn about Maine forests and surveying. Yes, when any of you faithful readers go to Jackman, you will see Coburn Mountain standing tall on the landscape.

Yes, Governor Abner Coburn’s caring about the people of Maine and our entire USA make him one to be held in highest esteem by students who have had the privilege to study at the colleges his many millions financed. He gave Skowhegan its Free Public Library, was responsible for the Maine Central Railroad and Skowhegan Savings Bank in his Skowhegan and was on many committees and boards that made our USA all that he envisioned it could be. He was our Civil War Governor and friend of Abraham Lincoln. In fact, antique photos show his sitting directly behind Lincoln, as our, then, president delivered his Gettysburg Address.

It is important to know that Chairman Washburn is available to schools throughout our Somerset County, so that our young people will know of a very important person in our Maine history. Probably one of the most important of Governor Coburn’s lasting virtues was his generosity. He readily gave his money to those who were in need. In the words found in an antique book about Abner Coburn by Charles Williams: “There are few in Maine, in fact anywhere in the Union, whose life offers a more worthy illustration of what a (person) is capable of achieving.”

Take time to say ‘thanks’ for Maine’s being the way life should be, faithful readers.

by Katie Ouilette

WALLS will now let faithful readers know what had been told about Redington-Fairview General Hospital’s being all that people should be grateful for. So, now, faithful readers, WALLS has spoken, and thanks go again to CEO “Dick” Willett and all staff members and volunteers at RFGH for the caring they exhibit in everything they foresee and do.

O.K., let’s switch to education. Rather, WALLS is repeating what was written a bit ago, namely, ‘’What goes around comes around.” Well, WALLS isn’t sure this subject of ‘education and money’ will come around, but those who were in school in the ‘40s, as Katie was, feel that this solution may have merit. Those were our World War II years and all students in Garfield and Lincoln schools in Skowhegan were given small American flags to wave as soldiers marched passed them on Water Street. Yes, those uniformed soldiers had marched from the VFW Hall on Main Street and were headed for deployment to war and our, then, passenger train would be waiting for them at Skowhegan’s Train Depot on Court Street.

But, what about the budgets for the schools? Well, we of Skowhegan and Madison learned the art of being very frugal in those years. Jean Finley and her family had moved from Pittsfield to Skowhegan and the frugal school boards of Skowhegan and Madison had hired her dad to be superintendent of schools in both towns. Oh, that was just one of the differences that we lived with in the ‘40s. The frugal school boards also had the sharing extend to the sharing of school music teacher, yes, remember Mr. Baraket? The towns also shared our school nurse Mrs. Wise. Oh, and lest we forget that Miss White became Mrs., since female teachers were to be their “students’ mothers” prior to World War II! We also were placed in two-grade rooms. Eight of us in the fifth grade shared the room with Mrs. Lewis’ foruth graders and, likewise, the eight of us shared Miss Weston in her sixth grade and the other desks in Miss Weston’s room were occupied by fifth graders. Well, do you faithful readers think this was a good idea? Frankly, some of the students in a lower grade learned from listening.

By the way, we Skowhegan students were all eager to get to junior high school on the island in Skowhegan. Yes, that building, once, housed Skowhegan High School, but a new high school awaited, when we were ready for it……..yes, the first Skowhegan High School was on Willow Street.

What happened to them? Well, the Skowhegan Junior High on the island burned down and the villages have replaced old Skowhegan High, but the memories linger on.